Waterford native's 30-year-old cold case murder solved

When Judy Briggs had her sister -- Waterford native Amy Hurst -- over to visit her North Carolina home in 1981, Briggs didn't realize that'd be the last time she'd ever see her.

But now more than 30 years later, Briggs has finally found some closure in the recent conviction of Hurst's husband in her death.

Amy Hurst, 29 at the time of her death, lived around the area of Elizabeth Lake and Airport roads before moving to Florida in 1982. She had two children from a previous marriage, Lisa and Jeff, who had moved in with their father.

After she remarried, Amy brought her husband, William Hurst, to Briggs' home for William's first and only visit.

Briggs remembers the day well. She said there was something strange about the way her sister was acting.

"She (was) usually a very fun type of person," said Briggs. "That day, she was sitting in an uncomfortable position, kind of curled up next to (William Hurst) ... and looked like she was afraid to talk."

It seemed like something was wrong, she said.

She was right.

Amy and William moved to New Port Richie, Fla., where Amy began work as a cashier at a local Winn-Dixie market. A missed telephone call -- on August 15, 1982, Amy's mother's birthday -- was what got the family worried.

Amy and her mother were "as close as two people could be," said Briggs, "and it worried me when I got a call saying nobody (had) heard from Amy."

Two months later, fishermen off the coast of Anna Maria Island in the Gulf of Mexico found Briggs' remains floating in the water -- wrapped in an afghan and a green bedspread -- with a concrete block tied to her leg.

Because of a mix-up at the Manatee County missing persons division, Amy's body went unidentified for more than 25 years. It was her son, Jeff Earley, in 2009, who helped during the onset of the murder case.

"It was luck," said Earley, an Ortonville resident. He stumbled upon a listing on the Doe Network, where a photo of a crocheted afghan and green comforter found with an unidentified body jogged his memory.

He called Briggs, who immediately recognized the knitted blanket.

"It was the identical match to one that my mother had given me," said Briggs. "I used to call it 'the afghan of many colors' because it had colors from all the things my mom used to make for the girls."

After calling the Pasco County Sheriff's Office where Amy once lived, Briggs and Earley began working with detectives.

One was Det. Lisa Schoneman, who has been with the sheriff's office as long as Amy's cold case had been open.

She explained how Amy had finally been identified in 2011.

"The Manatee County Medical Examiner, after three years of mitochondrial DNA testing, matched Jeff's DNA with Amy's," said Schoneman. "It was her."

The Pasco Sheriff's Office began building a case, and tracked William Hurst, 61, to Kentucky. Schoneman, after obtaining a grand jury indictment, flew to the state and made the arrest.

"From the very beginning, it all pointed to him," said Schoneman. "There was a violent history between the two of them ... he never called her family."

Schoneman went on to explain when Hurst was first questioned after Amy's disappearance in 1982, he agreed to take a polygraph to prove his innocence -- but the next day he disappeared.

The Pasco circuit court trialagainst Hurst began Monday and ended, just three days later, on Thursday.

Earley, his sister Lisa Bebee, and Briggs attended the full proceeding. Briggs said it took no longer than three hours, after a lunch break, for the Pascola County jury to return with a guilty verdict for first degree murder.

The verdict was bittersweet for Briggs.

"Today I'm still disturbed," Briggs said Friday. "I knew (Hurst) did it all along. He destroyed two families -- ours and his own."

Hurst was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Briggs said she's glad, at least, that she got to look Hurst in the eye and tell him what a "no good murderer" he was.

"I've been waiting to do that for 30 years," she added.

Amy's daughter, Bebee -- a hospital worker in Imlay City, Mich. -- said she's glad the whole thing is over. Although she and her brother knew their mom was never coming home, she's looking at the whole experience as a positive: At least now they know what happened, she said.

"It's a part of us, now," she said. "It made us who we are today ... made us stronger."